Plenty of resources-books, classes, conferences-offer help to pastors in the early years when they are honing their skills. But what about the closing years of ministry? What are the unique struggles and strengths of the “golden years”? How can older pastors use this time to its fullest? How can younger pastors prepare themselves now to minister effectively then?
To talk about the practical dimensions of ministry from ages 55 to 70, LEADERSHIP brought together four pastors who have ministered energetically and effectively during this period:
-Ed Bratcher, author of a book about ministry, The Walk-on-Water Syndrome, is recently retired from a fifteen-year pastorate at Manassas Baptist Church in Virginia.
-Art Brown was a missionary to Portugal for fifteen years before spending the last twenty-two years of ministry as pastor of Western Springs Baptist Church in Illinois.
-William Buursma has pastored Third Christian Reformed Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for seventeen years. He will retire in January 1991.
-Lee Moorehead last pastored First United Methodist of Madison, Wisconsin, where he served for eight years prior to his retirement in 1984. He has coauthored Six Stages of a Pastor’s Life.
Leadership: What advantage does age bring a minister? From what resources could you draw at age 55 to 70 that were not available earlier?
Lee Moorehead: Experience, for one. And for me it culminated dramatically in the last two weeks of my official tenure.
Shortly before I retired, I was called by the family of one of my dearest friends, our choir director and minister of music, and was told that he was missing. Immediately I went to the family home and spent nearly all of the next forty-eight hours with them. The police were searching for him, and as the second day wore on without them finding him, things became more ominous. The next morning, just before I was ready to go see the family again, a police official called me and said they’d found his automobile at an abandoned farm. His body was in it; it had been an ugly suicide. I had to go and tell the family.
In the last two weeks of my ministry, then, everything I knew and practiced as a minister was called into service. I had to ransack my experience to know what to say, first to the people of our congregation on the following Sunday morning, and then, the following evening, to the huge crowd, many of whom were not churchgoers, that gathered for his memorial service.
William Buursma: As we get older, I suspect we can minister better under extreme circumstances because over the years we ourselves have suffered loss. A young person facing a situation like Lee described will have little experience to draw on. You can be sympathetic, but you can’t be completely empathetic; you can’t deeply know what these people are experiencing. But by age 55, you’ve likely lost parents, close friends, perhaps children. An older minister has an advantage there.
Art Brown: Feelings, pain, joy-they all have a cumulative effect upon us. In the later years of ministry, there’s no question you draw on your pastoral experience and knowledge, but also from all the deep emotions you have known.
Moorehead: You also draw upon what you believe about the Christian gospel. We have learned personally that there are no simple, glib answers. But we’ve also increasingly learned to draw upon the Christian faith to answer life’s sufferings and mysteries.
Ed Bratcher: During this period of ministry, I’ve enjoyed a greater freedom in many practical ways:
Our children were grown, so we didn’t have the day-by-day demands of having children at home-no more changing diapers, no more anxieties about teenage children. That freed me to focus more on ministry.
Financially we were a little better off, as well. So, during this period, my wife and I enjoyed a number of continuing education opportunities. We’ve gone to Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Africa.
I had more time and more money in my 50s and early 60s to minister more creatively than at any other time. By the way, the church liked my emphasis on continuing education. It communicated to them that I was not sitting around, biding my time until retirement.
Brown: There’s also more freedom to ask the congregation for things. Earlier, my church had no provision for continuing education. I timidly suggested we have one. Years later I discovered they were glad to hear my requests about this and other things. Later in ministry, I became more direct about housing, professional expenses, and such things.
Bratcher: More importantly, when we get older, we become more like father figures. Many people yearn for someone to come to, someone they believe has gone through some suffering, someone who will not judge them.
Part of being a father figure has been the opportunity to use hugging to express love. When I was in my 20s and 30s, I found that difficult, with men or women. But as I become older, this has become more natural.
Leadership: Can pastors be leaders, who initiate change and call the congregation to greater things, while they are loving, accepting father figures?
Moorehead: Being a father figure can be a detriment if you hide behind this benign figure and never take stands on crucial issues.
Bratcher: At the time I was becoming more of a father figure, I also was dealing with controversial issues more openly. I preached a sermon a couple or three months before I retired that I don’t think I would have preached four or five years earlier: “Is He White or Is She Black? Some Thoughts on the Nature of God.” That’s a lively title for a Southern Baptist congregation.
But looking at it merely in terms of self-preservation, when you get up into the 60s, unless you’re seriously negligent, no one is going to fire you.
Consequently, you’ve got more security. That security can give you more freedom to speak and lead your people boldly.
Moorehead: In Wisconsin, where I pastored last, one election included a referendum to make the state a nuclear-free zone. Many churches were taking stands on the issue. So I did as well, and I preached a sermon about the issue.
At the end of other controversial sermons, I encouraged people to talk back, either in the sanctuary or in a class that followed. But on that occasion, I simply told them what I stood for and what I thought our church ought to stand for and left it at that. I knew some would be unhappy, but I went ahead. I don’t take credit for great heroism, though. It was a little easier to speak like that during the latter part of my ministry.
Brown: I think Lee is right, although I didn’t see my last year or so as a time to get things off my chest.
Moorehead: Exactly. That’s another matter.
Buursma: At the same time, I find as I grow older I become more mellow. I had an awful lot of answers in my 20s and 30s. I was more dogmatic. Unless we become bitter and rigid, I think the aging process brings with it an ability to look at life with kinder eyes. We’ve learned through our own failures and frustrations. We learn to understand dimensions of life we used to condemn. We’re able to be more compassionate.
Bratcher: As you get older you realize more and more that you’re here only by the grace of God and by the grace of people. For me, journaling has helped me become more conscious of my experiences. And recently I’ve written to many people who have helped me through the years. Reiterating how they helped me has re-emphasized the fact that I didn’t do it all alone. That process tends to make one less judgmental.
Leadership: So an older pastor can be both more prophetic and less judgmental? Isn’t that a contradiction?
Buursma: Not at all. To be prophetic means to apply the Word of God to the congregation, even if there’s personal cost. To be judgmental is to be censorious, to lack empathy and compassion for the weaknesses and frailty of others. One can never be perfectly nonjudgmental and prophetic, but the older minister can do both better than he or she used to.
For example, a few years ago our church leaders suggested our congregation move from one to two morning services. I supported the idea strongly because I believed we would plateau if we didn’t. So, without consulting the congregation, we simply announced that at a certain date we would start holding two Sunday morning services.
We did that for almost two years, but it was two years of frustration, unhappiness, and polarization. Some people complained about not seeing their friends, others about the lackluster singing of smaller services.
I stuck my neck out for a year and a half saying that if we were serious about reaching out to our community, we needed two morning services. Ultimately the leadership decided we’d lost on that issue and agreed to go back to one service.
I was prophetic, applying the Word of God to the life of the church. I had more courage to do that and stick it out as long as I did, because I knew I would retire in another two or three years. Ten to twelve years earlier, I might have chickened out more quickly.
Unfortunately, I can’t say I was completely free from being judgmental, only better than in earlier years. Frankly, there were times I made the issue a spiritual test: people in favor of two services, I felt, were more sensitive to the challenge of evangelism. But I was certainly less prone to this attitude and more ready to repent of it.
Brown: For me the distinction is this: we pronounce judgments-God’s judgments, we hope-and we want to do that clearly. There are standards. Yet to be judgmental, to be hostile or narrow in attitude, is different. Our tone indicates whether we are pronouncing God’s judgments or simply being judgmental.
Over the years, as we deal with such issues, we begin to think less about our own feelings and more about the feelings of others. Even the people we think are wrong become a concern to us. We increasingly understand why others believe and feel as they do.
Bratcher: In Manassas, which is near Washington, D.C., we had many employees of government agencies as members of the congregation. Once after I preached that loving our enemies would include loving Ayatollah Khomeini, a Secret Service man stalked out of our church. That week I made an appointment to see him in his home, and we talked over the situation. He didn’t change his position; I didn’t change mine. But we had a better understanding, and he came back to church. I think that was both prophetic and nonjudgmental. I don’t know I would have done that when I was younger.
Leadership: Some say that ministerial life becomes insecure around age 55, that finding a new call then is nearly impossible, so you’d better mind your manners. You seem to be saying just the opposite: you can speak and lead with a greater sense of security.
Buursma: We have to acknowledge that a pastor at age 55 is not much of a marketable commodity today. Churches want younger ministers. That’s a blow to your ego and creates insecurity.
Bratcher: It depends on where you find yourself at age 55. If you haven’t found a good fit with a congregation, things can be precarious.
To be specific, I have met three individuals recently who had problems in their 50s. One was in his early 50s and had been at his church about fifteen years. Another was around 55 and had been at his church for twenty years. Both felt there was no place for them to go. So both left the pastoral ministry. One retired early; the other became a counselor. This to me was tragic, because they were talented individuals who had more to contribute to the church.
The third person is around 55 and has been at his present church about two years now. He feels it’s a mismatch, the wrong congregation for him. He’s depressed and panicking; he doesn’t know what to do.
Situations like these, naturally, will raise your insecurity level.
I, on the other hand, was fortunate to start serving my last church when I was 50. When I turned 55, I realized I probably wasn’t going to go anywhere else, but that was fine. I was enjoying ministry there. So I simply settled in, focused my energies, and decided to enjoy the remainder of my ministry. In this circumstance, I had little problem with insecurity.
Leadership: Besides decreased “marketability,” what else makes ministry during this period more difficult?
Moorehead: We’re tempted to start winding down, becoming careless, less committed to working hard for Christ and his church. Preaching especially can become lackluster if we feel it is no longer necessary to devote a lot of time and effort to sermon preparation.
The way I fought that was deliberately to recommit myself to preaching. On Thursday of each week, I took my lunch, went to a retreat center, rented an inexpensive room, and stayed for the whole day, sometimes until 8:00 at night. It was important to have concentrated time not only to prepare sermons, but also to study in general.
Bratcher: During this period I was especially wary of becoming “professional” in my execution of ministry. For instance, I was concerned that I might start just going through the motions during funerals. So I would pray earnestly, especially before funerals, weddings, and other ceremonies, that I might be sensitive to people. I didn’t want to wear a professional mask during my last years.
Buursma: I had just the opposite experience. The longer I’m in a church, the more emotional I become, because I’ve learned to know and love those people. I’ve had approximately two hundred funerals in this pastorate, and the first ones were easier. Now that I’ve lived with these people seventeen years, it’s like burying family. I have to struggle not to break down.
Brown: Multiple interruptions began to wear on me in the later years. By that I mean when I was studying and the phone would ring, and simultaneously someone would knock on the door, and a moment later the secretary would stick her head in to have me sign something. I thrived on that tempo earlier, but not my last few years.
Buursma: I think there is a negative side to the pastor as father figure. Some people imagine that the older minister is increasingly out of the mainstream. They think we don’t understand what’s going on. I’ve noticed, for example, that the jokes younger people share with one another are no longer shared with me. I suppose they feel I won’t catch on.
To some degree, that’s threatening. No one likes to feel that other people think you no longer can understand.
Leadership: How do you deal with that perception of a generation gap?
Bratcher: In some ways you simply have to accept that you’re not going to relate with younger people in certain ways. For instance, I didn’t like rock music. And I didn’t want to give time to understand it or even become acquainted with Christian rock groups. I made no bones about it. That became a barrier, an important area of our young people’s lives that I chose not to be interested in. So, I could no longer communicate with them at certain points.
Nonetheless, in working with young people, I found I could still relate. We still enjoyed a closeness. When I was about 60, one high school senior dashed to my office one afternoon because she had just gotten her SAT scores, and they were embarrassingly low. Before she could face her father or mother, she wanted to talk with me, to get some affirmation and strength.
So, although there were some barriers that age threw up, I didn’t feel myself excluded.
Leadership: So if common interests, like rock music, are not the contact point, what is?
Bratcher: To the high school senior, as with others, I was a father figure-in her case, maybe a grandfather figure! I was someone she could talk with about her heartache. In general, young people have a spiritual hunger. Many want to understand Scripture, to grow in their faith. I can relate to them at those points. But in the last few years I didn’t try to play basketball or touch football with them.
I don’t think my athletic limitations hurt my ability to relate to them as pastor. They knew I played racquetball three mornings a week, and that I could beat nearly anyone in the church. They showed interest in that.
Leadership: What does age do to your ambitions?
Buursma: By the time you turn 55, you know you’re not going to be the Billy Graham of the next generation. You know you have achieved whatever you will achieve. There will be no tremendous bursts of new inspiration and insight.
Along with that comes a letdown, a shadow in one’s life plans. Some of the goals you had as a young pastor are never going to be realized.
I have gifts in journalism. There was a time I thought I would be a good candidate to become editor of a particular magazine. At one point I was nominated for the position, but another person was chosen. He’s done an outstanding job. Nevertheless, that was one dream that never became reality.
Bratcher: You also realize that age itself thwarts some dreams. When I was 61, a denominational position dealing with pastor-church relations was being developed for Virginia. I was recommended to the position by some friends. But I didn’t get it. The person who made the decision was open about the reasons-he said he was building a team and wanted people who would be around awhile. To put it simply, I was too old.
That’s tough to hear. When I was in my 50s, denominational leaders sought me for positions on boards and committees. But once I got into my 60s, there were fewer invitations. Naturally, this was disappointing because I always had enjoyed that type of work.
Moorehead: In the Methodist system of appointments, spring is the nervous season, because most annual conferences are in the process of making appointments. Many people are wondering who is going to become a district superintendent, who is going to which church.
A lot of pastors at age 50 or 55, who feel qualified for a larger appointment, are plunged into deep discouragement when they hear they won’t be moving as they’d hoped, and especially if they are moved to a less desirable church.
Leadership: How does age affect your physical stamina for the demands of ministry?
Buursma: We are no longer able to study for long hours. When I was younger, I could study, if I needed to, until 2 or 3 A.M. I have to start earlier now, otherwise I fall asleep. That’s simply a physical fact of aging.
Brown: A few years ago I discovered I wasn’t enjoying standing on Sunday morning for two services, a Bible class between, and greeting at the door after services. By the time the morning was finished, I had been standing for four to five hours. I was tired!
Another thing, working fifteen or sixteen hours a day a few years ago was a piece of cake for me. Now I don’t enjoy that pace.
So the inner clock sends out subtle signals that tell us there isn’t as much energy inside.
Leadership: Is that discouraging?
Brown: Not discouraging, but it does make you question yourself when it first sets in. When I first noticed a lack of energy, I began wondering if I was exercising enough, or if something was wrong with me. I shared this with a few people, all of whom hastily and strongly reassured me I was as young as ever. However, they did it so hastily and strongly that I had a gnawing suspicion that maybe they weren’t telling the truth! (Laughter)
I finally realized that I was past 60, and at that age, a person gets tired easier.
Leadership: Did your priorities change when you entered this period of ministry?
Bratcher: Yes. I became more interested in crisis ministry. I also became more interested in preaching, particularly in preaching apologetics. I was finding that most people who came to church were not firmly rooted in their faith.
Also, committee meetings and administration become less important. I discovered those things could be turned over to other people.
Brown: When I began serving my last church, I attended every committee and board meeting. I wanted to affirm the committees and boards, and I wanted to know what was going on. But looking back, I see I also felt they needed my great wisdom!
As I grew older, this routine began to wear me out. I realized those committees and boards didn’t need me. So for the last ten years, I never attended a committee or board meeting unless I was invited. I finally was able to trust them and their decisions. I think I could do that because through the years I’d seen people do things remarkably well without me.
I felt this way about the preaching, too. No longer did I have to be in the pulpit every Sunday morning. Earlier, I was careful about who would speak. But in my last years, I invited other staff members and lay people to preach, as well. It was a wonderful experience.
Buursma: I agree. I find my people appreciate it if I don’t zealously guard my pulpit. They not only like the change, but also that I am willing to share that forum.
Leadership: When did you know it was time to retire?
Bratcher: I felt I should retire from parish ministry at age 65. During our later years our frustration level goes up, and our ability to deal with frustration goes down. In the 60s it takes a little longer to regain your strength after a grueling experience or weekend. You need a little longer to recuperate.
It gets back to that internal time clock. I don’t think it’s an accident that our society has chosen 65 as the usual age of retirement. For most people, that’s a good time to retire.
Moorehead: It’s important psychologically for the pastor to set a date for his retirement, and to stick to it. At the time I retired, I felt the church was in excellent condition. People were affirming me and suggesting I continue until age 70. But I wanted to go when people said, “Moorehead, we’re sorry you’re going” rather than wait five years when they would say “Moorehead, we’re sorry-but you’re going!” (Laughter)
Brown: In your later years, the question increasingly and persistently surges: How long can I maintain this pace? How long can I be productive in all the aspects of pastoral ministry? You realize even at 60 that you’re beginning to fade in some respects, forgetting names and dates sometimes, for example.
I’ve heard pastors say, “I want to die in the pulpit.” Well, as for me, I want to die in bed. I don’t think it’s any gift to the church to die in the pulpit.
Moorehead: I believe the minister should be in control of retirement, so I think he or she ought to set the date and do so while still healthy and strong. Then you can think about what you’re going to do in the closing period of your ministry.
You plan your strategy, set goals, throw everything you’ve got into those last years. You’ve got to have some period to do that, a period that the minister should determine.
Bratcher: I agree it’s important to have control of that time. If a minister should still feel productive and energetic at 65, he or she should approach the church and get an agreement to stay on, but only for a specified period, until age 68, for example.
But what I’ve found is that many ministers, when they pass 65, don’t make any announcement. They just drift along, leaving everybody unsure. People begin to wonder how much longer the pastor will stay. That’s when you start seeing a church drift aimlessly.
Buursma: We’re not necessarily in a position to judge whether we’re still effective. Setting a definite date is a good idea. If the congregation says to the pastor that they want him for another two or three years, then maybe he should do it. But the initiative should come from the congregation, and then another date of retirement can be set.
Leadership: In announcing your retirement ahead of time, do you become a lame duck? Can this time of ministry be fruitful?
Bratcher: You only become a lame duck when you start announcing, “This is my last Easter sermon,” “This is my last Christmas Eve service,” or when you defer decisions to your successor. That will undermine your relationship with the church.
Moorehead: Actually, another psychological advantage of setting a date is that you can pour everything you’ve got left into that last year or so, rather than limp out in weak health.
Brown: I announced my retirement eighteen months in advance. In some ways that became the most creative and active time of this latter period of ministry. I focused my energies, knowing I had only a year and a half to prepare staff, church leadership, and congregation for the coming changes.
Moorehead: It’s a matter of stewardship of one’s ministry at this point. To help prepare the way for a successor is a ministry in itself. I know one pastor who dedicated himself to doing the things he knew his successor would want to find already done-even such things as fixing up a deteriorating building, repainting a peeling sanctuary.
Bratcher: The advance announcement also helped my wife and me close out our ministry and say our goodbyes intentionally. A committee was appointed to help celebrate my forty-two years of ordination and fifteen years with the church. On a Sunday on which my birthday fell, they had a special service for me. On a Sunday closest to my wife’s birthday, they celebrated her accomplishments. Then a month later the church put on a farewell banquet for both of us.
None of this took away from the life of the church. It just gave everyone a chance to say their goodbyes in a positive, intentional way.
Leadership: What things can younger pastors be doing now that will make ministry from ages 55 to 70 more meaningful and effective?
Brown: Journaling has been a powerful way to come to know myself and to be open before God and other people.
I would also encourage pastors to get in touch with the spiritual classics before you reach old age. Augustine, St. John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, and many others can deepen our sense of wonder and our capacity to worship and lead worship.
Bratcher: Such reading is important, because the role of the minister is no longer important to society.
People don’t care that we’re ministers; they’re looking for authentic individuals. Among other things, an authentic person is someone who recognizes a need for God. As Art suggests, these classic writers found their place in God and stood amazed at his grace. They can teach us the same.
Also, I think it’s especially important when you’re 35 to realize your need for God’s grace and power. All that excess energy you have at 35 is going to start burning out one of these days, and you’re going to start realizing that you need more than adrenalin to get through ministry.
Buursma: Younger ministers shouldn’t think that by the time they’re 55 or 60 they will be the faithful pastor of their dreams, doing more study, preaching better, visiting more. There’s nothing magical about getting older. It doesn’t transform you or automatically produce new virtues. You won’t find yourself marvelously regenerated.
Although there should be continual professional growth and sanctification, in many respects the minister you are at 30 is the minister you will be at 60. Younger ministers should begin addressing poor attitudes and work habits now.
Leadership: Did you find the time just prior to retirement a peak experience or a time to wind down gracefully?
Moorehead: My later years were a time of spiritual growth when I had to face stabbing questions about suffering. How does Christian theology account for bad things happening to good people? I’ve seen people I love suffer seemingly without justification. But I believe that God inserts these questions into our lives to compel our spiritual growth. For me these questions were more intense in these later years, as was my growth.
Bratcher: I was a little surprised the other day when I realized that I finished my largest and most significant writing project when I was 60 years old. Many people think that at 60 you’re past your prime years of productivity, but finishing that book was one of the most productive things I’ve ever done.
Buursma: In one sense, this last church has been the best because it’s been the most challenging. It offered many good years, but I’ve also had more stress and strain in this church. That’s not so much the fault of the congregation as it is the fault of the denomination. We’re going through considerable turmoil now.
I’ve also noticed, as I have nine months left, an increasing care for me developing in the congregation. I sense they don’t want to hurt me, so in a loving way it seems they’ve agreed to postpone their fights until I’m gone. I’m willing to let them do that!
Brown: The last years were probably the most memorable of all my ministry. If there was any time I felt I might hear the words “Well done, good and faithful servant,” it was then. In the last months of ministry, a lot of love and respect not usually expressed openly begins to surface. I suppose until we reach that period of ministry, we never really know how much our lives have affected so many, many people.
When I was a boy, I heard a young woman say to an older pastor, “I’m jealous of you, because you know the Lord so well.”
He said, “Well, I’ve walked with him for many years.”
That’s a significant point for older ministers. The more we live with God, the more wonderful he becomes. I marvel more than ever now at the awesome majesty of God, and at his love and his grace. I think it takes a lifetime to come to that point. In that respect, ministry from 55 to 70 is a peak experience.
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